Platinum
by do-i-know-you-xxx
Summary: The GB have finally managed to get their hands on something thats going earn them enough money to last them decades -over forty kg worth of platinum. Too bad it's not going to hand itself over without a fight. OC.
1. Chapter 1

Part 1

"So, what do you want?"

Ban took a long puff on his cigarette, a lofty expression fixed on his face, eyes examining the man in front of him. He was dignified, at least, as dignified as one could be with a chibi, blonde, electric eel on top of him. A bead of sweat broke out his forehead when his partner continued his search for a reasonably comfortable spot on his sea-urchin head.

"Get the fuck off me!"

And the little guy was flung up to the high heavens. Almost. He landed with an audible "Splat" on the ground. The other man winced.

"I need you to get something back for me."

"Anything!"

Ginji squeaked from his pancake position on the pavement. Ban glared at his partner and raised a foot, ready to mash the pummelled face into the ground until there was nothing left but little mound the size of a doggie poopie left.

"Fool. We don't work for free."

"But -- It's -- Katsu -- chan!"

The ball of meat managed to mumble from its awkward position on the earth.

"I don't care."

Ban was merciless as he attempted to mash the small splat's brain.

"It's fine. I will pay you. Just as long as you get it done without damaging the goods."

"Obviously. So what is it that you want back?"

"My sister."

"…"

Humans usually meant trouble.

"Any details on location?"

"No idea."

"Hmph."

"I know, vague huh? But, she's missing so I need you to get her back. She's with the yakuza, I think."

"That's vague alright. So you have no idea? Well then, I think that two-hundred thousand sounds reasonable, don't you?"

"Deal."

As the mad stretched out his hand to confirm the deal, something, something large, metal and heavy, smashed into the back of his head. He groaned and fell to his feet, clutching his head and gasping in pain.

"Is that how much you _really _value me?!"

The voice of his attacker was indignant, yet regal and commanding. As the man knelt down, the retrieval agents could see the new stranger who had hit the man from the behind. She was slim, with sharp, angular features to the face, but modest curves the rest of the way down, dressed in a school uniform of some kind. Jet-Black hair pulled back in a no-fuss pony-tail and with one hand on a hip, she was the sort that could be beautiful she tried. She also happened to be tossing up and catching with one hand, by the looks of it, a giant metal pole.

"Owww … "

Other two characters simply stood there (Ginji perhaps in a more difficult position), attempting to hide their surprise, completely caught off guard. After all, it wasn't every day that their client was knocked on the head with a huge metal baton. And it was't everyday that the client happened to be one of the second generation of the GetBackers either.

"How about he,"

The girl shrugged at the twitching man on the floor,

"Pays you three hundred grand instead?"

"But -- maybe 220 000 would be reasonable?"

Ginji suggested weakly.

"Nuh-uh. 275 00 and it's a deal."

"B-b-but … "

"How about 500 000?"

Ban added, finally getting over his shock. After all, they happened to be haggling the wrong way around.

"Done."

The girl smiled, a catlike curve that looked smug, very, very smug.

"In case you haven't realised, it happens to be _my _money?"

The injured man had recovered quickly.

"Yeah, well, it's me you're buying."

His sister glared down at him.

"Ginji, Ban, meet my _only _sister, Shizuka."

Seeing the puzzled looks on the GB duo's faces, he attempted to elaborate.

"She's the one you're looking for."

"It-it can't be that easy right?"

Ginji managed to stammer out.

"Sorry. You'll be looking for my _body._"

The girl smiled, almost wistfully, and Ban was beginning to wonder whether this was a sick joke or something. What was this, a perverted game of hides and seeks?

"You see, _this _body is made of pure platinum. The other one might be on the other side of the world for all I know, and as nice as this one is, I want the real one back."

Pure _platinum_?1

"I'd do it myself but … I have other priorities."

Katsu tried to explain, butShizuka rolled her eyes.

"By that he means that he has a control-freak for a fiancée and being such a push-over, told her that he would get someone else to find my body."

Katsu cringed, but got up, an amazing feat for someone who had just been knocked on the head with a metal bar, and straightened himself up.

"So? Will you take on the job? Or will I have to tell Aki, no and that charming Shido-kun, yes?"

Ban's pride was always present, and this time was no exception. Especially when a certain beast-master was concerned.

"We'll take the job."

"Good!"

Katsu beamed and shoved Shizuka towards them.

"She's all yours now."


	2. Chapter 2

Part 2

"I understand that we are performing the job for Katsu...

I also understand that we will be paid 500 000 yen…

What I _don't _understand is, _why the fuck you are handcuffed to this brat_!"

Ban spat out the last few words viciously, pointing at the uncomfortable pair, and Ginji cowered, at least as much as he could whilst being chained to Shizuka. The girl simply rolled her eyes and continued playing with warm metal on her wrist. She looked bored.

"B-b-b-but Ban-chan, Katsu-chan did this!"

The chibi stuttered, and held up his arm to show to all of the Honky Tonk the handcuffs that were locked on his and Shizuka's hands. The other half of the two opened her mouth to say something, but Ban furiously interrupted her.

"Don't _you _say anything! Why the hell are we stuck with you?! _You'll_ just slow us down. Are you really so much trouble that he had to _handcuff _you?! Do I have to break the damn chain for you to separate?! I don't care if you're a customer, _get lost_! We don't need someone to slow us down!"

Shizuka waited patiently until the urchin-head managed to calm partially down, having moved onto toying with a straw. Twirling it in her slim fingers, she asked Ban slowly,

"If you let me talk for a bit, maybe I could explain?"

He crossed his arms over his chest and glared. The girl sighed; this was going to be as much of a 'yes' as she was ever going to get from this man.

"Well, to answer your first question, you're stuck with me because my _real _body is currently in an unconscious state and -"

"No shit."

"… that's the only reason I am able to use this body. How to put it … like my old body and my 'soul' if you like it, were magnets and put together, and when I'm unconscious, the attraction is cut. But if I were to become conscious again, I get dragged back into flesh, and this lump of metal,"

She gestured at her body.

"Would simply be a lump of metal again."

"And we are supposed to care because … ?"

The girl began to look irritated – what kind of a thick-headed idiot was her brother placing his trust in?

"Because if I do wake up, I can find out where I am, and if I'm not stuck in the middle pf the Sahara Desert or whatnot, either I could try to escape, or I could find out where exactly I am, knock myself out and return to my second body to find the other one, with your help of course."

Ban was looking slightly pissed at the fact that he hadn't thought of that before.

"Second question, ummm … Well, bro seems to think that Ginji's naturally pure aura would rub off on me or something. And you don't really have to break it yourself, I could do it myself, if you let. So?"

"What are you a kid? Why are you even asking? Break the damn thing."

Shizuka gave a light tug on the chain and it obediently snapped, setting the two free.

Ginji flushed in happiness and wrapped his arms gratefully around her neck, rubbing his cheek against hers.

In a steady monotone and with a small bow in her head, the girl told Ban,

" Because I am now in your care Ban-sama."

He simply goggled at her.

In her normal voice again, she growled at him.

"Don't take it for granted though big guy, my bastard brother made me practise that line for an hour yesterday, and just to make this clear, I am _not_ your toy."

She swapped looks and turned to beam at Ginji, kissing him affectionately on the cheek and hugging him close.

"I'm afraid Katsu doesn't think your mature enough to look after me Gin-chan, but you seem just fine to me."

She swivelled around again to stick her tongue out at Ban, practically flashing the words -

_I don't need you._

In huge neon letters.

Paul smothered a laugh when he saw Ban almost take an involuntary step back, whilst the other man began to wonder to himself,

"_Am I looking after a child or a woman?_"


	3. Chapter 3

Part 3

It had not been a good night, or morning for that matter, for Ban Mido.

For a start, he had humiliatingly lost a 'paper, scissors, rock' game to Shizuka and had been forced to sleep on the roof of the car, whilst the girl lay curled up on one of the back seats, and Ginji dozed off, spread across the driver's and front seat. Did either of them have any idea how hard it was to fall asleep whilst lying on a flat, hard and cold piece of metal?

And to add to the torment, only a few hours later, after much swearing and cussing from the sudden pain, Ban found himself face first in the ground, having rolled over in his sleep and slid off the car's smooth top.

"God … **dammit**!!"

Curse Shizuka and that giggling heap of flesh he called a partner, Ban hated sleeping on the roof of the car. Certainly the great Ban-sama deserved more than to be frozen to death and blinded in his sleep by streetlights? Evidently not. _I am a woman, perhaps not entirely human, but I am female all the same, so you'd better learn to respect that! _Ban could hear her mocking voice in his head and he clenched his fist tightly. The stupid bitch was starting to get on his nerves.

He looked up to see the very woman he was thinking of, stifling a laugh with two hands – _speak of the devil. _She looked very much awake, her pitch black eyes glittering with amusement.

"What are you staring at?!"

He snapped at her. She cupped her chin with a hand, propping up the arm on a knee, and smiled smugly. He narrowed his eyes in reply.

"We could switch places if you want – I don't sleep, at least I don't need to in this body."

Ban could feel his hackles rising - the girl didn't even need her bloody sleep when she insisted that he sleep on the roof!

"If we're gonna switch places, then, _please get the fuck out._"

She gave him a cat-like smile and stood up in the car, bending down to keep her head from hitting the roof. She raised an arm, and it seemed to disappear, only the area below her wrist visible, moving around, as if trying to find a good spot for her hand to rest upon. She did, and waved at Ban with her other hand, before heaving herself up into apparent oblivion.

He looked up to find her on her hands and knees, staring down at him from the car's top, still smiling, as she raised an arm and patted him on the head.

"I can see your manners are improving. You certainly learn fast."

He glared back up at her smirk, and got inside the car, slamming the door shut loudly in her face in reply to the sarcastic remark.

Even when he had shut his eyes and thought that he would be finally be rewarded with peace and quiet, he could hear her whisper quietly,

"Goodnight, or morning should I say_… Ban-sama._"

In the same mocking tone. Ban glared up into the sheet of metal. Women. always insisting on having the last word.


	4. Chapter 4

ASDFGHJKL

Part 4

"Put it on Katsu's tab, mister."

Katsu had a tab? Ginji stared gloomily at the wooden bench he was sitting at, sadly tracing the smooth lines in the wood with the tip of a finger. At least Katsu-chan's tab would never reach the GB duo's state. Just thinking of that giant figure they owed Paul made the blonde depressed.

"Err …"

Paul scratched his head.

"Katsu doesn't have one."

"He does now."

Shizuka beamed at Paul, grabbing the coffee and newspaper from his hands and settling down next to Ginji to read the day's latest news. Ban muttered something, and Ginji caught something along the lines of, "Spoilt Brat." The girl turned and poked her tongue out at him for the third time that morning. Ban bristled and opened his mouth about to burst into a rant, but was interrupted by the chiming of bells and the distinctive "click" of Hevn's high-heels. Ginji looked up, hopeful at the chance of a job and in the end, some cash. A handsome young man with the air of a flirt, dressed richly in a suit and his hands decked with gold jewellery followed her, pouting at her buxom figure from behind. He spotted Shizuka next to Ginji and smirked.

"Ah, Hevn babe, since you won't flirt with me, I'll just find someone else to have some fun with."

Obviously the thought of teasing a young teenage girl amused him and Ginji gave Ban questioning look. Would she be attracted to this strange? The other man raised his eyebrows, as if asking, "Do you really think this child could be seduced by some rich bastard?" Even with Ban's reassurance, Ginji couldn't imagine Shizuka rejecting the man.

"Hey, haven't I seen you someplace before?"

Ginji watched as Shizuka's eyes paused in the midst of scanning page 84, and flick in the stranger's direction.

"Yes, that's why I don't go there anymore."

She had completely deadpanned him, her comment bringing the bar into an awkward silence, whilst the man stared at her, slack-jawed and obviously new to this whole "rejection" phenomena.

"You know, I ways to please a woman …"

He placed a hand on back, and Ginji almost admired the guy for getting back up his feet so quickly.

"The please leave me alone."

She replied in monotone, as if she had already repeated the phrase to him a million times and had now programmed herself to reply automatically.

"Aww… Come one, don't be so cold … Play a bit?"

His hand slid down a little further and the girl stiffened. For the first time, she tore her eyes away from the paper to give the man a cold, hard stare. Suddenly her aura shifted and she smiled amicably at him, almost childishly. She lifted up the newspaper from the bench to reveal a line of weapons; a long acupuncture needle, dagger, Swiss army knife, and a cleaver.

"Darl, if you had just asked at the beginning … of course I'll play with you?"

She beamed, deceptively friendly.

"How about we play a game? I get to kill you with one of these weapons!"

She clapped her hands together, feigning juvenile excitement. At the horrified expression on the flirt's face, she leaned a little closer and put her hand up, as if stopping a small child from bursting out into excited chatter.

"_But … _you get to chose the weapon!! Kay?"

Ginji almost stopped breathing and the man looked petrified.

"Well, for the least painful death, I'd chose the needle baby, I mean, I _do_ know where the perfect spot to punch it through is. Unless you want a more dramatic death? Perhaps the cleaver then? Blood spurting all over the place, I think it'd be a good show! But then again … think about the mess it would make …"

She paused in deep, deep thought. Ban jumped up from his frozen position and calmly clasped a firm hand over her mouth, although from his position behind, Ginji could see the tendons and veins in Ban's hand bulging out, the stress and shock obviously getting to him.

"Don't worry about her, are you with Hevn?"

When the man didn't reply, Hevn stepped in.

"Yes, actually, he's your next client!"

The man seemed to snap out of his stiff state, and stuttered loudly, a complete change from the smooth-talker he was just minutes ago,

"S-s-she's not with you is she?!"

The last few syllables flew up an octave, as hysteria bubbled from his throat. Ginji understood the man's horror, having given up on trying to see through Ban's figure and examining the sharp metal objects lying on Paul's bar.

"Her? Pft … _no._"

Huh?

"Eh? But Ba-"

Ban shoved his free hand onto Ginji's face. Shizuka frowned lightly and picked up the dagger, ignoring the frightened man's shriek. She flashed it in front of his face defiantly, shining the words etched into the blade - "I CAN'T BREATHE" into his face. Ban glowered at her, knowing she didn't even need to in that body of hers, but tugged away, allowing for her to turn away and stab the dagger back into Paul's bench. The bartender nearly screamed himself, at the sight of his beloved, once flawless, table, with a gaping hole in it. Ginji glanced at Shizuka and could see her hands shaking. Was it anger? Or simply the shock of having a sweaty hand pressed over her lips, although, that sort of thing didn't bother Ginji so much nowadays – he had grown accustomed to it. Whatever it was, Shizuka got up from her seat and bowed down low, her long hair almost touching the floor.

"I apologise for any disruption I have made, please excuse me."

And with that, she straightened up and strode out of the bar, the closing of the door, making only of the tiniest of tinkles.

Ban looked back at the customer and gave a fake smile, whilst motioning at Ginji from behind not to follow her. He seemed to think that she could manage on her own.

"So, shall we get down to business?"

- - - - - - - - -

_Sorry, I went on a road-trip for a couple of days, so I was separated from my computer for a while. Apologies for the late update._


	5. Chapter 5

Part 5

He missed her, it was painfully obvious, and yet Akito refused to admit it. Perhaps, if his memories of her had only been a few weeks old he would accept it. But it had been years. _Years. _And yet he was still pining for her, his head filled only with thoughts of her, that eight-year-old companion who had one day disappeared and hadn't returned. She wasn't coming back, he knew that, but he couldn't let go, for fear of letting go of himself too. It wasn't that he was afraid that he would move on and forget his first love, it was because she was the tiny ledge that he had been holding on by the fingertips for the last ten years. Eventually he would slip, slip and fall into oblivion, but while he could, he continued to cling to life, the faintest shred of hope still existent.

He gritted his teeth as another wave of nausea swept over, disorientating and making his vision swim. Akito's ears began to ring, a sure sign of what was going to happen next. He closed his eyes and as he had everyday for the last five years, drifted into unconsciousness, embracing the familiar darkness.

- - - - - -

Shizuka's head spun as she stumbled blindly around the streets of Shinjuku, ignoring the complaints and protests as people moved out of the way. After elbowing herself around slowly thinning crowds, she finally found what she was looking for – a dark, empty alleyway where she could be left in peace. She leaned over, placing a hand against the wall and breathed in heavily, savouring the scent of the familiar streets. She had gotten a scare, remembered some things she did not want to remember, felt something she had not felt in a long time. Warily, she looked up, trying to figure out her exact location. Looking up, she saw the giant corporate building in the distance, the electronic giant, AMEC. Something clicked inside of her and she began to stride purposely towards it. She had never been one to fear another being, but she began to slow down, until she was at a normal walking pace again. She hadn't seen him in ten years. Would he still forgive her after she had abandoned him? Would he still be living there? Would he even be alive?

- - - - - -

The sudden ring of the doorbell woke Akito from his fitful sleep, but at first he didn't recognise that peel of sound – he hadn't heard it in such a long time, and considered ignoring it. It rang again, and he sank back down into his pillows. It rang again, this time, continuously; someone must have been holding the button down. It was irritating, but hauntingly familiar, as if he had heard it only yesterday. Padding downstairs, he smoothed on a passive face, no doubt it was his father's new and harassed secretary coming down with orders to check on him.

He opened the door and found an attractive young high-school girl turned around, and about to leave. He was surprised – since when did his father start hiring part time workers? It was true that he chose buxom workers for his own pleasure, but this girl was too young, too innocent looking. She swung around hurriedly and their eyes locked. He could feel himself shaking already, barely holding back a convulsion as she reached out to touch him. Taking an involuntary step back, he told her, in the coldest voice he could muster,

"Don't touch me."

She jerked her hand back as if he was the plague.

"Can I?"

"What do you want?"

"Please."

Shizuka stared at him, her coal black eyes pleading.

"I _trusted _you!"

"Please."

"Don't! Since when did you ever care?! You _left_ me!"

She flinched and he could see a flicker of anger in her eyes catch fire, until all he could see was a blaze.

"Did you really thing I had a choice?!"

She shouted at him.

"You're not the only one who had a dysfunctional family you know!! Idiot!"

She hit him in the head, the thump on his head reminding Akito of times he had missed so much, and he recoiled, rubbing his head the same way, he realised, he had ten years ago. Shizuka was choking on laughter and tears, her fire extinguished.

"And you restrict your power too! How could you?!"

She hit him again, this time with a little less force and looked up, wiping tears from her cheeks. She straightened, and glared at him.

"_Now._"

"What?"

He realised what she was talking about and stiffened.

"No."

"You have to."

"No I don't."

"You haven't released your power ever since I left, have you? I could feel it even when I hit you. I didn't even need to try."

He stared at her with dull eyes. It was already too late, she knew it too, and yet she offered her hand with a small smile.

"I know what you're thinking, it's a miracle you were able to hold on for so long and it will be impossible if you try to let go, but we have to try don't we? I want to save you Akito. Even after all these years … I want to be able to play around with you again… After all, you don't have anything to lose. Do you?"

He took her hand hesitantly and whispered softly,

"No. No, I don't."


End file.
